66 



WEEDS. 



gin only being serrated, and in some few instances being 

 toothed. The fructification is sometimes lateral, and in that 

 case always axillary, but sometimes terminal. 



Various plans have been adopted and recommended for the 

 extirpation of mosses. The most plausible is to scratch and 

 tear the surface of the ground with sharp-teethed harrows, to 

 apply a good top-dressing, and to sow the seeds of grasses. 

 Another cure consists in folding sheep on the surface. But 

 these modes are only temporary, for in a very few years the 

 mosses again appear, and usurp the dominion of the surface. 

 Experience has shown that breaking up the land, and relay- 

 ing it with fresh seeds, is the only effectual cure, after the 

 land has been well fallowed, cleaned, and manured, subse- 

 quently to the bearing of culmiferous and leguminous crops. 

 This mode is the most effectual, and consequently the most 

 economical in the end. 



A notice and description might be added of some weeds 

 that are very conmionly found on road sides, and by the roots 

 of hedges and fences. But such plants are very easily known, 

 and should all be cut by midsummer, and the labour will be 

 repaid by the value of the ashes when burned. The seeds of 

 such weeds when perfected, are blown by the wind, and 

 carried by birds, and consequently infest the meadows and 

 arable fields. A compulsory clause should be inserted into 

 every lease or agreement of holding land, that these weeds be 

 all cut by midsummer, on every road-side and fence-root on 

 the farm and the sides of the main roads ; and the ditches 

 must be cleaned by the notice of the commissioners. Seeds 

 of weeds are perfected in such places in quantity sufficient to 

 stock the whole neighbourhood ; and a careful farmer is often 

 put to very considerable expense in paying for his neighbours' 

 neglect. It is a part of the land-agent's business, or of his 

 deputy, to see the performance of such very necessary clauses 

 on every estate. 



Weeds should be very carefuU}^ eradicated from all com- 

 mons and unimproved lands, for, if the tardy wisdom of the 

 human intellect be not yet ready for the inclosing and culti- 

 vation of every inch of reclaimable land, much good may be 



